scribed the local show. But it definitely and completely disposed of Robert for that afternoon.
"If I let you play with anything you wanted to," Alice then asked Sara, "what would you play with in this house?"
"Anything?"
"Anything," said Alice firmly.
"Fire and matches?" asked Sara.
"No," Alice had to confess, "not fire and matches."
"Climbing on the roof with a ladder, like you made Robert reflect for?" asked Sara.
"No," again Alice had to confess, "nothing that can hurt you."
"Would paddling in the bathtub hurt me?" inquired Sara with artful cunning.
Alice had to admit that that occupation was not lethal.
"Sailing paper boats and paper boats and paper boats in the bathtub all the afternoon, and sailing the soap dish and sailing the tooth glass, and washing dolls' clothes, and putting the rubber animals in and the bath animals in," asked Sara, "and everything in, like a 'quarium? I could do that if I wanted?"
"Yes," said Alice faintly.
She saw a desolate waste of splashed up house. She saw chaos and confusion indescribable. She foresaw, also, that Jamie would want to play this game, and she had made one condition in doing just what you wanted, which was that each child must play alone. The bright vision of a peaceful afternoon was fast dimming itself when, after a moment's reflection, Sara broke forth with—
"Well, I don't want to do it. Because," she explained, "I want to do something else more. Do you know what I want to do? I want to dress up. I want to be a lady. I want to put a little shawl over my
